Case study 1
Rebuilding the valuation file for a round closed without one
A company had raised from a small group of individual investors and fixed the price in a board meeting, with no valuation on file. We worked backwards from what existed at the time, including the plan circulated to investors, the management accounts then available and the diligence questions the investors had asked, and set out the method that most closely fitted a company at that stage. The engagement produced a dated reconstruction with its inputs attached, and a note explaining why the original price sat within a defensible range, ready to go out with any reply to the assessment.
Case study 2
Answering a notice that priced a founder round against book value
The assessment took the balance sheet as the measure of what the shares were worth, which for an early business with its value in a product and a customer pipeline produced a figure far below the issue price. Our work was to explain the method actually used, show why an asset-based measure did not describe this company, and evidence the assumptions from documents that existed when the round closed. The engagement produced a written submission, the supporting workings, and a schedule tying every assumption back to a contemporaneous source.
Case study 3
Pricing a round with resident and overseas investors coming in together
A founder was closing a round where money was arriving from friends in India and from a fund abroad, at a single price. The question was not only what the shares were worth but which set of rules each subscription had to satisfy, and whether one price could serve both. We set out the pricing constraints applying to each group, identified where they diverged, and advised on the sequencing of the subscriptions. The engagement produced a priced round the company could document on both sides, with the valuation evidence in place before the first subscription was accepted.
Case study 4
Defending an earlier premium after a down round
A company raised at a lower price than the round before, and the earlier premium was then questioned on the basis that the later price showed what the shares had been worth all along. The work was to document what had changed in between, including a lost contract, a slower product cycle and a funding market that had moved, and to show that the two prices reflected two different sets of facts rather than one mistake. The engagement produced a chronology tied to board records, and the valuation reasoning for each round, filed together.
Case study 5
Fixing the valuation date for shares issued on conversion
An instrument subscribed years earlier converted into equity, and the file had to say which moment the value was to be tested at: the date the money came in, or the date the shares were actually issued. The two produced very different pictures of the company. We worked through the terms of the instrument, the accounting applied to it and the board approvals, and settled a position. The engagement produced a written analysis of the conversion, a valuation prepared at the date that analysis supported, and a memorandum for the company's records.
Case study 6
Clearing an unresolved premium found during acquisition diligence
A buyer's advisers flagged a historic share issue where the premium had never been supported by any valuation, and asked for the exposure to be described before completion. We assembled what the company still held from that period, tested whether the price could be supported on the information available then, and set out plainly where it could not. The engagement produced a diligence response describing the position, the supporting material for the years that could be defended, and a note of the remaining uncertainty for the parties to deal with in the deal terms.
Case study 7
A Retirement Plan That Grows Tax-Deferred in Only One Country
Cross-border retirement accounts are recognised by treaty, but the deferral usually has to be elected rather than assumed. The engagement checks whether the election was made, makes it where it was missed, and reports the account on whichever side requires it.
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Case study 8
A Relief That Turned on Days Nobody Had Recorded
Treaty exemption, residence and social security are each decided by a count that has to be evidenced rather than recalled. The engagement builds the record from tickets, rosters and payroll before applying any article.
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